Saturday, May 28, 2011

930AM: Invited Talk by Sanchita Saxena
Sanchita Saxena is the Associate Director of the Center for South Asia Studies at UC Berkeley. In the summer of 2010, Sanchita was a Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C. where she was working on a book Policy Reforms Influencing Competitiveness in the Garments and Textiles Industries: Case Studies from Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka. New York, which examines domestic coalitions in the garment industry, and their influence in enacting policy reforms in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka.
Prior to her current appointment, Sanchita was the Assistant Director of Economic Programs at the Asia Foundation. Sanchita received her Ph.D. in Political Science (focusing on Comparative Political Economy) from UCLA in 2002. Her research interests include politics of economic policy and reform, the role of NGOs in development, local economic governance and decentralization, and international trade.
Sanchita has taught courses in Comparative Politics, The Politics of Developing Countries, and the Politics of Economic Reform in Asia and Latin America at UCLA, UC Davis, and the University of San Francisco. She is a trustee of the American Institute of Indian Studies, the American Institute of Bangladesh Studies, and the American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies. Sanchita is also a member of the Advocacy Committee of Human Rights Watch, San Francisco

NGOs in International Development: Challenges and Opportunities
The NGO sector is playing a growing (and to some a controversial) role in addressing many of the world's greatest challenges - poverty, inequity, discrimination, disease, environmental degradation, illiteracy, human rights abuse, loss of culture and heritage, etc. Additionally, over the past decades it has found itself on the front lines of identifying and responding to new and emerging issues and disasters, including HIV/AIDS, SARS, the crisis in Darfur, the impacts of climate change, and the tsunami.

Globalization, shifting demographics, financial challenges facing the public and private sectors, blurring lines between government, business and civil society, and rising demands for accountability and the complexity of measuring performance mean that a successful NGO will need to be agile and have the ability to apply the best available strategic and management skills, systems and knowledge. But the scope and complexity of the problems the sector addresses and the diversity of NGOs and their contexts present considerable challenges in identifying and implementing what good practice is and what is appropriate in a given opportunity and environment.
Presentation Link: NGOs in International Development: Challenges and Opportunities

1100AM: State of Asha (by the current Coord Team)
Presentation Link: [Not uploaded for privacy reasons]

100PM: Quality of EDucation or Why the sky is blue? [Subashree]
Presentation Link: Quality of Education
Resources:
Asha QED Wiki page: http://wiki.ashanet.org/display/projects/QED
Dimensions of School Quality: http://wiki.ashanet.org/display/projects/Dimensions+Of+Quality

200PM: Project Partner Talk by Jayashree Joglekar
Jayashree Joglekar joined Door Step School as Director of their Pune setup in 2009. In her capacity as Director of the Pune operations, she is responsible for all projects, fund raising, maintaining external relationships and scaling the operations.
In her career of 28 years in Engineering and IT sectors, Jayashree has worked in various world class organizations such as AT&T Bell Labs, Veritas Software and Wipro. She worked with AT&T Bell Labs in the US for 10 years before moving back to India. During her tenure in Veritas Software, Jayashree received the "IT Woman of the Year" award from the Computer Society of India. In her most recent career assignment before Door Step, Jayashree was Vice President and Chief Operating officer of Wipro's Financial Securities business, as well as Head, Pune operations. In her tenure, Wipro's Pune operations grew from zero to 8000 people.
In February 2008 Jayashree chose to retire from the IT industry because she had a keen interest to do some community service. She then took up a consulting assignment as Head of Wipro Cares, Maharashtra. Wipro Cares is a fund created by Wipro Employees' contribution. She started three projects in Pune, in partnership with NGOs doing excellent work in the field of education. Two more projects in rural health care are in the process of starting up, in other locations of Wipro in Maharashtra.

Doorstep School: Education at every doorstep
Doorstep School (DSS) provides education and support to the often-forgotten children of pavement dwellers, slum dwellers, construction site families and many other underprivileged families. Many of these children are not enrolled in school and have limited access to books and a place to study. Additionally, many children drop out of school to work or care for younger children. With neither support nor resources at home some children also suffer from very low learning levels. DSS is trying to bridge this gap by bringing education to the Doorstep of these underprivileged children.
Presentation Link: Doorstep School Presentation
Video Link: A video introduction to Doorstep

400PM: (parallel session) Asha Fellows [Vinod]
Asha fellowship program supports individuals whose work in time will (might) have a large positive impact by creating an institution or a methodology. The area of support is typically of current importance with potential to make large social impact to reduce poverty and injustice in the life of the underprivileged of India. The area of support includes (but not limited to) education, income generation, women's empowerment, integrated rural or slum development, addressing dominant social concerns like child labor, bonded labor and other areas. We will take a critical look at the program, and discuss various possibilities and what we can learn and implement.
Presentation Link: Asha Fellows Update and Discussion

400PM: (parallel session) Team Asha [Venki]
Presentation Link: Team Asha

500PM: (parallel session) Support-A-Child and similar models [Anshu]
Presentation Link: Asha SAC/SAT/SAS

500PM: (parallel session) Treasury Update and Debate [Rahul]
Presentation Link: [Not uploaded for privacy reasons]

600PM: Critical look at our project processes [Vinod]
Presentation Link: Project processes: Current and Future?
Discussion Notes: Actionable notes and discussion from the session